tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1635141587480495482018-03-18T21:06:58.872+00:00Diary of a DonkeybodyMND Musings - This is a record of a chronic illness, Primary Lateral Sclerosis, a Motor Neurone disorder, like a slow MND / ALS. My body may not be very cooperative; in fact it's become as stubborn as a donkey, but I'm not dead yet.Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.comBlogger675125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-77537042692297500502018-03-17T20:18:00.001+00:002018-03-18T12:41:22.460+00:00RIP Stephen Hawking<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Today we had the AGM of our local MND Association and remembered Professor Stephen Hawking, the most famous man with Motor Neurone Disease and patron of the MNDA, who died this week. He’s widely considered one of our greatest scientists, the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Brief History of Time </i>and the subject of the Oscar-winning <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Theory of Everything.</i> His MND was unique – or highly untypical – in that it lasted for 55 years rather than the average 14 months from diagnosis. He had a great dry sense of humour and an inextinguishable zest for life, despite the disease leaving him without a voice and without use of his limbs as it progressed. He claimed to have become a more convinced atheist over the years. Only once did I dare to disagree with him. In an interview in 2011 an interview with him was headlined, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Stephen Hawking: ‘There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story.’” </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Which gives a beautiful picture which has circulated on social media by Australian artist, Mitchell Toy, particular poignancy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2LEkWlbaCK4/Wq13ldizzDI/AAAAAAAAAvM/bbkRf2AKlhIGdC8v8LvZYS1n1BaicGiqgCLcBGAs/s1600/29178445_1850157741669451_6377876437551971369_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2LEkWlbaCK4/Wq13ldizzDI/AAAAAAAAAvM/bbkRf2AKlhIGdC8v8LvZYS1n1BaicGiqgCLcBGAs/s400/29178445_1850157741669451_6377876437551971369_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The interview provoked me to suggest an alternative rational view, which was published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Guardian</i>, and as I recall attracted a quantity of hostile comment on line. I would like to think that my view and the vision of Mitchell Toy is nearer what Professor Hawking will experience than the bleakness of his own expectations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Here is my article:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Like Stephen Hawking, I have been living with Motor Neurone Disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Like him, I’m one of the lucky few not to have died within months of diagnosis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’m nine years younger than him and have had the symptoms of the disease for only ten years, compared to his 49.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>However for those ten years I’ve “lived with the prospect of an early death” also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Unlike Professor Hawking I am not a superstar scientist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’m simply a small-time writer, who used to be a teacher and a vicar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It seems to me that, while some things Stephen Hawking says in the interview as it’s reported are unarguably true, some are also admitted hypothesis, and some are merely tendentious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One of the features of MND both for him as for me is that it affects your ability to speak and hence pares down what you say to the bare bones. (That’s not of course the case when you have time to type a script.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Hence sometimes you are frustrated by your inability to nuance your ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And so it may be that his very categorical answers are the nub of his opinion, but not the full expression.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For example, there’s something of ‘nothing-buttery’ about his comments about death: “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s unarguably true that there’s no heaven for broken down computers, as I have found to my cost when I poured fruit juice over my laptop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The brain may be nothing but a most remarkable computer, yet there’s something generically different from a computer in a brain which, when it starts to malfunction as happens in MND, can begin to love Wagner’s music and “enjoy life more”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That, I would say, is irrational, but not uncommon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Human beings, it would appear, are something more than machines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Maybe science will one day describe what the difference is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hawking tells us that “The universe is governed by science.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I think I understand what he means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is certainly discoverable by science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Scientific theories which don’t fit with the evidence of the universe fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In simple terms science is governed by the universe, not the other way round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What’s interesting is that this is in effect what Hawking says talking about the beauty of science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s “beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations”, citing the double helix and fundamental equations in physics as examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I find myself admiring and agreeing with much of what Professor Hawking says, but I find his ethical deduction and his quasi-religious observation sadly lacking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“So here we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What should we do?” he’s asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The question sounds similar to ones posed to great religious teachers of the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His answer is disappointing: “We should seek the greatest value of our action.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s certainly thought-provoking (What exactly does that mean for this or that action?) and it is a principle which is reinforced by the experience of life-threatening illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One could say, “Don’t waste your life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yet as a rule for life, it lacks both the impact and the practicality of the great Judaeo-Christian answer to that question, “Love God above yourself, and love your neighbour as yourself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even those who are unwilling to subscribe to the first part can understand the second part and usually admit its validity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It might conceivably be argued for on the Darwinian grounds, that those societies which have lived by altruistic principles have survived, but that very admission raises the question of the origin of that surprising pre-scientific insight. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally Stephen Hawking’s headlined observation about death, that an after-life “is a fairy-story for people afraid of the dark” is both sad and misinformed. His proposition that there is no heaven reminds one of Gagarin’s alleged dismissal of God because he did not see him in space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Openness to the theoretical possibility of there being eleven dimensions and fundamental particles “as yet undiscovered” shows an intellectual humility strangely at odds with writing off the possibility of other dimensions of existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For someone “facing the prospect of an early death”, with probably an unpleasant prelude, the idea of extinction holds no more fear than sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It really is insulting to accuse me of believing there might be life after death because I’m afraid of the dark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On the contrary, sad though I shall be to leave behind those I love, I suspect the end of life, whatever happens, will be a relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And, like Pascal making his wager, if it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>dark, I really won’t mind, because, of course, there won’t be a me to mind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Strangely enough, my theory that there is a form of life after we die is not some sort of wishful thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s based on evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If the brain is a computer, then, when I was studying where Stephen Hawking now teaches, I came on a mass of data of which the most convincing, the neatest, explanation was that death is not the end of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It wasn’t the most comfortable nor most obvious of conclusions, but the forensic case was forceful and beautiful, providing “simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The best exposition I found was by the then Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London, Professor Sir Norman Anderson, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Evidence for the Resurrection (</i>afterwards republished as part of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Jesus Christ the witness of history (IVP 1985))</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>My disturbing conclusion was that, if it happened once, as seemed beyond reasonable doubt, then I needed to revise my whole world view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What you see is not all you get.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One may wish to dismiss Jesus Christ, or Julius Caesar, as fairy stories, even as bunk, but, until one has examined the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">evidence</i> in Anderson’s forensic manner, that’s a premature judgement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I suspect many do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As for the idea that belief in an afterlife is a consolation, it is not just about heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Most faiths in fact have a notion of judgement, which is hardly comfortable for anyone, although it does focus the motivation not to waste one’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Moreover in our situation Professor Hawking surely knows better than that some notion in your head, whatever that notion might be, makes the frustrations and pains of a terminal illness somehow more bearable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That’s the nonsense of those who’ve not been there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I can’t prove it of course, but on good grounds I’d stake my life on it, that beyond death will be another great adventure; but first I have to get finish this one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">RIP Stephen Hawking.</span></div><style>@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "ＭＳ 明朝"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }@font-face { font-family: "lucida grande"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }span.FootnoteTextChar { }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { }</style>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-86394484550145276552018-03-15T17:52:00.002+00:002018-03-16T21:28:25.531+00:00The Right Honourable Leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"lucida grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What exactly do MPs, of all parties, reckon the role of the Leader of the Opposition to be? Do they really want a supine yes-man who fails to submit government actions to critical scrutiny? Or do they want a leader who is not afraid to ask those in power the awkward questions which remain unanswered? </span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whatever the truth of the Salisbury affair, we as the public certainly have been given no more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">proof</i> that the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal was authorised by the Kremlin than circumstantial evidence, such as that Skripal was a Russian spy and a British double agent, that the fourth generation nerve agent used, generically known as Novichok, was developed in Russia and has a Russian nickname meaning "newcomer", and we think the Russian president is a nasty piece of work. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It might be summed up in Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s profound observation that if something "swims like a duck and quacks like a duck" it's probably a duck. “Proof” seems to add up to “you have to take our word for it,” said loudly and repeatedly. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was more circumspect in her Commons’ statement saying merely that it was “highly likely” that the Russian state was responsible. According to our former ambassador in Uzbekhistan, Craig Murray - who is far better informed than me - it is highly unlikely that this "proof" is true. Read <a href="https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/the-novichok-story-is-indeed-another-iraqi-wmd-scam/">https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/the-novichok-story-is-indeed-another-iraqi-wmd-scam/</a>. It is eye-opening.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o51WwbYVWug/Wqqvw1LKG6I/AAAAAAAAAu4/Qt7CrOhuXJ05wOewUkK6KlFxIrPo5uexwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-15%2Bat%2B17.29.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1070" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o51WwbYVWug/Wqqvw1LKG6I/AAAAAAAAAu4/Qt7CrOhuXJ05wOewUkK6KlFxIrPo5uexwCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-03-15%2Bat%2B17.29.55.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Jeremy Corbyn was unflinchingly direct in his condemnation of the poisoning of the Skripals, both of the use of chemical weapons in war and on the streets. He also condemned the Putin government and its supporters for “its human rights abuses both at home <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> abroad”. But, much to the dislike of the government benches, he also asked some pointed technical questions, including whether they had referred the incident to the International Office for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons. A former member of that office and weapons inspector interviewed on Tuesday’s Today Programme confirmed that following a whistleblower’s revelations any “advanced” state could manufacture a chemical agent of this type. So it was also a reasonable question to ask what particularly pointed its manufacture to Russia. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whatever the details of the Salisbury affair turn out to be, if we’re ever allowed to know them (and official secrets are a well-used governmental fig leaf), far from playing tawdry political games that proved he wouldn’t defend us (Daily Mail), Jeremy Corbyn proved himself a serious opposition leader, unafraid to do his job – subjecting the government to critical scrutiny and awkward interrogation. This was evidenced in the hostile personal attack with which the Prime Minister answered him. It is a shame that he is not receiving the support he deserves from some members of his own Parliamentary Party. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Another thing that seems to have riled the Conservatives is Mr Corbyn’s pointing out on Monday how much the Tory party has received in donations from rich Russian oligarchs now domiciled in the UK with British nationality – over £3million since 2010, and just since Mrs May took office more than £820,000. Of course they want to hold on to it. One wonders why these fabulously wealthy exiles choose to buy favour with the British ruling party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">An irony of the affair in the House of Commons is that in Russia and its predecessor, the Soviet Union, those we most admired were the dissidents, the brave people who dare to challenge accepted orthodoxy. And yet here the powers that be, political, media and plutocracy do all they can to shut his dissenting voice up. It’s perhaps no coincidence that his speech contained this comment about dissidents: “I join with many others in this house in paying tribute to the many campaigners in Russia for human rights and justice and democracy in that country.” One of those no doubt was Alexei Navalny, the hero of John Sweeney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Panorama </i>programme last night of which Vladimir Putin was the villain.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, we should welcome the fact that we have in Parliament an opposition leader who holds our government to account - however uncomfortable that may be. </span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-71135545417756455612018-03-07T18:00:00.002+00:002018-03-08T11:55:55.929+00:00The Russian affair in Salisbury<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"lucida grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Oh, here we go again! The now traditional English sport of demonising Russians has kicked off once more. A Russian poisoned on the law-abiding streets of Britain leads to lurid headlines within hours. Russia responsible for a spy’s poisoning… we’re told. Speculation is rife. Vladimir Putin is quoted as saying that spies will never go unpunished. The deduction is made that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are victims of Kremlin vengeance.</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2fvT-hfILdM/WqAlZt4fEBI/AAAAAAAAAuM/lKi9CCT2Vl8hrHn6ee8pTW7jX9Vre1DiACLcBGAs/s1600/a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="750" height="183" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2fvT-hfILdM/WqAlZt4fEBI/AAAAAAAAAuM/lKi9CCT2Vl8hrHn6ee8pTW7jX9Vre1DiACLcBGAs/s320/a.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salisbury Cathedral</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The police and security services urge caution in attributing responsibility until investigations have led somewhere, and Russia experts do the same, but still Boris Johnson, our really quite bright Foreign Secretary, described Russia as “a malign and disruptive force”. The incident gave rise to a meeting of the national emergency committee, COBRA, although it’s not clear to me at least in what way it is a “national emergency”. However, one thing that’s clear is that it’s in the Government’s interest that this story should run and run, as it brings to our headlines a tale of espionage and intrigue which does a great job in covering the incompetence of our Brexit negotiations, the imposition of a young dictator as a royal lunch guest and the cardboard thin presentation of, for example, its house-building initiative. No doubt we are in for days of speculative journalism and counter-terror activity that will be useful in giving an appearance of governmental activity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Russia is a very convenient cockshy. Russian sportsmen are the targets for doping scandals – for example, did you know there were four competitors disqualified for doping from the Winter Olympics, from Japan, Slovenia and Russia? The ones we heard about, of course, were the Russians. I’ve written before about the sophisticated use of TUEs (Therapeutic Use Exemptions). I’ve no doubt that more than a few honoured athletes and coaches from wealthiest nations know how to play that system. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However there’s a more significant aspect to this convenient "malign" narrative. The more you demonise someone the harder it becomes to recognise your common humanity. The harder it becomes to remember that Russia is the country that paid the highest price in defeating both Napoleon and Hitler, and to remember that this is the nation that launched both Helen Sharman and Tim Peake into space and brought them safely back. This is the nation that gave us Tchaikovsky and sublime ballets, Rachmaninov and haunting orchestral music and Shostakovich and Stravinsky. It’s the homeland of Pushkin, Chekhov, of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, of Solzhenitsyn and Akhmatova, Kandinsky and Chagall. All right, it’s the land of borsch and frozen steppes. But perhaps most of all it’s the land of the gulags and the unparalleled history of courageous dissidence. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If you start with a demonic presuppositions, you will miss the human and see only the sinister, even in the good. You will engender fear and antipathy in the other side. And you will interpret the resulting defensiveness as aggression – and so begin a vicious cycle endangering them and yourself. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BEyJ948ZKJQ/WqAlq1FdOiI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/FH3kvnMBh3kFXqH3BITCl8e7IZxqnt5KwCLcBGAs/s1600/church_of_the_resurrection_of_christ_st_petersburg_russia_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BEyJ948ZKJQ/WqAlq1FdOiI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/FH3kvnMBh3kFXqH3BITCl8e7IZxqnt5KwCLcBGAs/s320/church_of_the_resurrection_of_christ_st_petersburg_russia_02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Petersburg, Church of the Resurrection</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From my limited experience of Russian people, they are very like me, albeit a bit braver. Shylock, the Jew demonised by the Christians in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Merchant of Venice</i>, should surely have taught us what common humanity means?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I suggest that our Russian xenophobia is as unpleasant and unproductive as the Venetians' anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s play. It may be politically convenient, but it will not lead to a more just and peaceful world.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-25256184920757581292018-02-26T16:48:00.002+00:002018-02-26T16:48:55.435+00:00Infantilising Sport<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"lucida grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On Saturday, I watched an excellent rugby international. No, not Scotland outplaying the “unbeatable” England. It was Ireland against Wales in Dublin. It was an exciting game, with flashes of brilliance. But what was particularly good about it was the refereeing. The man in question was Glen Jackson from New Zealand. He never once stopped the game to refer to the TMO (Television Match Official). How refreshing! And as a result the game flowed as it’s meant to.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I am tired of the way so many sports have come to depend on video replays. I guess it started with photo-finishes in racing, and then Hawk-eye at Wimbledon – which seemed a good idea after John “You cannot be serious” McEnroe. And then it spread to cricket with its snickometer and hot-spot. And rugby with the TMO. And football with VAR. At the recent Winter Olympics, video replays were rife in Pyeongchang: speed skating, ice dancing, fancy snow boarding and trick skiing.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UsR0cccPh3k/WpQ4K_gD-OI/AAAAAAAAAts/UbfZYslqz9MAUVW0EXlduKNLxIyqi3eLgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-02-26%2Bat%2B16.33.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1151" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UsR0cccPh3k/WpQ4K_gD-OI/AAAAAAAAAts/UbfZYslqz9MAUVW0EXlduKNLxIyqi3eLgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-02-26%2Bat%2B16.33.59.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A notable exception is curling. One of its refreshing aspects was the way that opponents always agreed the result of an end - no disputing. It was grown up behaviour. (A shame we didn't come away with a medal, but I did admire Eve Muirhead going for broke with her last stone!)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So what’s wrong with it? I don’t mind the use of photo-finishes when the human eye really isn’t fast enough to separate out bicycle wheels, horses' noses or skate tips crossing the finishing line – though if they’re that close, what’s wrong with equal first?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However my real objection is the use of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">video replays</b> in sports’ competitions of any sort. And it’s not because of the interruption of the flow of play, even if that is annoying enough. It’s because it infantilises sport. It demeans referees and umpires (depending on your sport). Instead of the man or woman on the spot being the final arbiter, technology is appealed to. Human beings are judged by machines. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We need to re-establish human trust into sport. Of course your referee may make mistakes, but that’s life. There used to be an adage, “The referee’s decision is final.” It wasn’t a bad one. There was another, “You win some, you lose some.” It was a healthy attitude, more healthy, I’d suggest, than the present custom of arguing the toss whenever the decision goes against you. There’s little more ugly than a grown man representing his country confronting the referee when he’s judged to have committed a foul. The “You cannot be serious!” merchants of the sports arena need to grow up themselves. Umpires and referees are selected for their impartiality. They deserve to be respected more, not placed at the mercy of machines. Sport would become a great deal more enjoyable were its participants (and their teams and supporters) to accept decisions made by those who in fact carry out a no-win job with extraordinary skill and integrity, without resort to wretched machines.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I'm told that the amount of money that is now tied up in professional sport is the driver behind the technological juggernaut. Maybe, but at least in the field let’s have less, not more, technology and more, not less, trust in people. </span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-12368092809187043602018-02-23T17:53:00.002+00:002018-02-23T17:53:48.723+00:00Plus ça change <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"lucida grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m67HDIIki84/WpBRHF4lBzI/AAAAAAAAAtI/X-ETc_NcIeEA6ECivvmxpyjrBpLss82JACLcBGAs/s1600/img_4650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="690" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m67HDIIki84/WpBRHF4lBzI/AAAAAAAAAtI/X-ETc_NcIeEA6ECivvmxpyjrBpLss82JACLcBGAs/s200/img_4650.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Keir Hardie was a fascinating and impressive character, as I’ve discovered from his biography by Bob Holman. It’s little wonder that he is often referred to as a hero. A brief account of his life by Professor Holman, </span><a href="https://keirhardiesociety.co.uk/about-keir-hardie/"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">https://keirhardiesociety.co.uk/about-keir-hardie/</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">, begins, “Born illegitimate and in poverty in 1856 and working in the coal mines from the age of ten. Yet Keir Hardie was to become the main founder of the Labour Party. An active trade unionist, he was sacked by the pit owners and became a trade union official, living in Cumnock with his wife, Lillee, where he was active in a local church.” Near his conclusion he writes, “He should… be praised for the life he led. He put principles into individual practice. He lived modestly and never used politics to enrich himself. He wanted no honours. He spent little time with social elites and always kept in touch with ordinary people. We need his like today.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Which perhaps goes some way to explaining why he was generally loathed by the press, controlled then as generally now by very rich press “barons”. He continually attacked vested interests. He considered the exploitation of workers as a flagrant violation of the Gospel imperative to love your neighbour as yourself and wasn’t afraid to say so. When he died, only his local newspaper in Scotland honoured his achievements. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Times </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>wrote: “It was Mr Hardie’s misfortune that he inherited more than an average share of Scottish dourness. The spirit of compromise played but a minor part in his activities. This negative much of his work for the party for which he worked, while his imagination led him astray on many vital points….`’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B78U9gNOwNA/WpBRtI-efCI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/gOCpE6jsHusxMc-yBl8I5q6T1pEmGhquQCLcBGAs/s1600/keir_hardie_bust_at_town_hall_stratford_west_ham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="277" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B78U9gNOwNA/WpBRtI-efCI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/gOCpE6jsHusxMc-yBl8I5q6T1pEmGhquQCLcBGAs/s1600/keir_hardie_bust_at_town_hall_stratford_west_ham.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe the press proprietors’ antipathy to him was unsurprising. He had little time for them. He moved a private members’ bill in the Commons in 1901, which blamed poverty on private ownership and called for “a Socialist Commonwealth founded upon the common ownership of land and capital, production for use not for profit, and equality of opportunity for every citizen.” “This House and British nation,” he said, “know to their cost the danger which comes from allowing men to grow rich and permitting them to use their wealth to corrupt the press, to silence the pulpit, to degrade our national life, and to bring shame and reproach on a great people in order that a few unscrupulous scoundrels might be able to add to their ill-gotten gains.” That would be a powerful enough sentiment to express today. I imagine it was even more unpalatable then.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This week we’ve had the strange case of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sun </i>newspaper (along with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail</i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Daily Express</i>, which all ran the same story) falling silent after breaking a scoop story about Jeremy Corbyn having been a Czechoslovakian spy in the 1980s. It proved groundless, but gave Conservative politicians licence to attack the man they most fear. However the newspapers have dropped the story – for the time being at least.<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HH</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="display: none; font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-hide: all;">Hoho</span><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Meanwhile the Deputy Labour leader, Tom Watson, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Independent </i>newspaper, “argued the new attacks on Mr Corbyn fit a pattern going back decades, which has also seen the same papers attack Ed Miliband’s father as ‘the man who hated Britain’&nbsp;and vilified&nbsp;Neil Kinnock.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Mr Watson’s attack comes as Mr Corbyn was forced to threaten legal action against Ben Bradley, an MP and a vice chair&nbsp;of the Conservatives, who, after reading the newspaper coverage, made claims on social media that the Labour leader had ‘sold British secrets’ to communist spies.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“In his article, Mr Watson writes: ‘Newspaper proprietors in this country abuse their power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘It’s a unique kind of self-harm for a newspaper to print a story they know is poorly sourced, decide to run it regardless because it suits their political agenda, and pass it off as news.’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I suspect the same motivation lies behind this dislike of Mr Corbyn as lay behind the attacks on Keir Hardie over 100 years ago. He didn’t seek their favour or mince his words, unlike the majority of those in power in recent times. And in the last two election manifestoes Labour has committed to initiating Leveson Enquiry part 2, which they fear would place them under legal obligations rather than their own rather easy-going voluntary code. He is in their view a danger. What he certainly is not is a traitor, as some Tories were stupidly saying, as Andrew Neil ably demonstrated in <a href="https://twitter.com/daily_politics/status/966278757588787201"><b>his interview</b> </a>with Brexit minister, Steve Baker, on Wednesday – which is one of the best pieces of interviewing I have seen. “Surely the real scandal, Mr Baker, is not what Mr Corbyn has supposedly done, or not done; it’s the outright lies and disinformation which your fellow Tories are spreading. That’s the real scandal, isn’t it?” <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I urge you to watch the four minutes of eye-opening viewing</b>. And where it started was with an under-researched malicious piece of journalism in one of our tabloid newspapers.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-71408446813274342592018-02-20T19:52:00.003+00:002018-02-21T15:41:55.696+00:00Charity concerns<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Charities are suddenly under fire. Any misdemeanour (and there clearly have been a number, charity workers being as human as the rest of us with less altruistic occupations) is now leapt upon with the pharisaic zeal which seems to be the mark of this age. However I wonder whether charity workers are any more prone to sexual exploitation than, say, businessmen. Are the media up in indignant arms over people at a sales’ conference in the developing world using and abusing local women and minors? I suspect it happens. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I understand that there is a peculiar dissonance between the altruistic aims of an aid charity and such behaviour. Yet is there an element of foreign-aid bashing in the obsessive focus on a systemic failure in Oxfam? Is it a coincidence that it comes within weeks of the Oxfam report released at Davos, which pointed out “Eighty two percent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report released today”? Discrediting charities which speak uncomfortable truth to power would allow some very rich and powerful people to sleep more easily at night. It would also suit right-wing newspapers which campaign to reduce our country’s overseas aid budget of a mere 0.7% GDP. And of course politicians of an insular persuasion will use it as fuel to divert money from the ethical, and self-interested by the way, relief of our fellow human beings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I trust that the overwhelming good performed by such charities will not be obscured by the fallibility of their human employees. We create enough misery throughout the world in one way or another. It would be an even bleaker place were charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children not to exist or were starved of support. It's tragic that 7000 donors have cancelled their subscriptions to Oxfam. Who will suffer? Not the donors.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nevertheless, even before the Oxfam news, I had been thinking about the role of charities, maybe because I’d been reading Bob Holman’s biography of Keir Hardie (<a href="http://www.lionhudson.com/page/detail/?K=9780745953540">http://www.lionhudson.com/page/detail/?K=9780745953540</a>). He famously had a contretemps with Lord Overtoun, the Scottish industrialist whose much lauded philanthropy did not extend to his own employees.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sfVeii6ogFg/Wox7yW8F-rI/AAAAAAAAAss/srwkgAMYaXMFtHn9clulHsYqYIHTsW11wCLcBGAs/s1600/5125LWUfTRL._SX317_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="319" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sfVeii6ogFg/Wox7yW8F-rI/AAAAAAAAAss/srwkgAMYaXMFtHn9clulHsYqYIHTsW11wCLcBGAs/s400/5125LWUfTRL._SX317_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I wrote to a theologian I know:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Do you think churches setting up things like food-banks, homelessness shelters and street pastors is a good thing?&nbsp; <br />“What I’m wondering is this.&nbsp;Were they not there, the true effects of government cuts in the name of financial responsibility would be acutely obvious and politically intolerable. As it is, the churches’ benevolence mitigates the effects of cuts in benefits and cuts to policing, and the vulnerable suffer, so that the well-off can remain comfortable.&nbsp;‘Let them make do with sticking plasters.’<br />“It suddenly occurred to me.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He sagely replied, “There is a danger in providing permanent sticking plasters instead of sorting the problem; but I don't see how Christians can pass by on the other side when the man is lying there mugged.&nbsp;But if it becomes an excuse for not pushing on the political structural fronts, eg working for proper policing on the Jerusalem-Jericho road or a health service that is meeting the needs,&nbsp;then we are at fault.... And that easily happens with conservatives.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As far as I know, this theologian is not a socialist. Keir Hardie (1856-1915) who shared his Christian faith certainly was. He was, as Professor Holman suggests, possibly Labour’s greatest hero. Hardie rightly wrote, “Poverty can never be remedied by charity, but only by justice.” That was his political motivation. “The Labour Party stands for something which no other party does. Its aim is the abolition of poverty.” What a great aim! Oxfam's vision is "We won't live with poverty". Little wonder some people would like to undermine it.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-65876238742052463772018-02-07T15:16:00.001+00:002018-02-07T15:18:45.490+00:00Tweeting truth <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I want to gripe again. My question is this. When do you ever hear what a politician really thinks? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSp2NTBGVyk/WnsU8O6JevI/AAAAAAAAAr8/Z8Lj6cIiNeMsZY1N1matflk68yQRytP1ACLcBGAs/s1600/education-teaching-rehearsal-rehearsed_speech-public_speaker-public_speaking-lectures-cwln4205_low.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSp2NTBGVyk/WnsU8O6JevI/AAAAAAAAAr8/Z8Lj6cIiNeMsZY1N1matflk68yQRytP1ACLcBGAs/s320/education-teaching-rehearsal-rehearsed_speech-public_speaker-public_speaking-lectures-cwln4205_low.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Cartoon from Cartoon Stock</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe Donald Trump’s tweets are genuinely his thoughts. But if they are, then where do his more reasonable speeches come from? Are they really what he thinks and wants? Or are they what his speech-writers reckon will go down well with his audience at the time? Certainly his minders minded when in the early days he strayed off-script. And it’s probable that they now also try to vet his tweets, with limited success it must be said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Meanwhile on our side of the pond it’s fairly obvious that our prime ministers don’t have the time to write the host of speeches they choose to deliver every week. One imagines that their party minders, the ones who pre-brief on coming speeches, suggest a promising topic as well as a crowd or party pleasing line; the PM chooses it and the speech writers produce it for her to deliver. And so we have the curious phenomenon of shifting policy arguments stated with all the conviction of a university debating chamber. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How I long for a politician whom one knows where they stand! And I don’t think I am alone. I suspect the perceived straightforwardness of Jeremy Corbyn accounted for the unexpected success of Labour at the last general election, and the beautifully articulate rigidity of the honourable member for the 18<sup>th</sup> century, Jacob Rees-Mogg, explains similarly his unaccountable and regrettable popularity among certain circles. Even the wily Father of the House, Ken Clarke, remains consistent<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>at the expense of his colleagues falling asleep.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There is, it seems, a struggle between politicians of convenience and politicians on conviction. Sadly often those with political aspirations start off with conviction but the pressures of expediency and the pursuit of power soon squeeze them into the mould of convenience.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It would be nice to believe that a good interviewer might elicit the truth from a politician. But of course the party machines have that awful possibility covered as well. Their representatives are intensively trained in interview technique, which we recognise all too well. It seems to boil down to, “Don’t answer the question asked. Have a sound bite and repeat it at every opportunity. Above all, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">stay on message</b>.” In my view, the adversarial nature of the interviewing game has done nothing for honest politics. Belligerent interviewers such as John Humphrys simply produce defensive politicians.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YZggU5qAZlw/WnsX-KWI_zI/AAAAAAAAAsI/TPuXTE9JrXIyvzJgjuzIh9SLYfQEyv_-QCLcBGAs/s1600/The-Fox-Hunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="548" height="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YZggU5qAZlw/WnsX-KWI_zI/AAAAAAAAAsI/TPuXTE9JrXIyvzJgjuzIh9SLYfQEyv_-QCLcBGAs/s320/The-Fox-Hunt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">E B Herbert, <i>The Fox Hunt</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Let me add one thing. I’m not blaming politicians more than anyone else. The rest of us have a mob mentality, like a pack of hounds led by journalists on their high horses, seeking out any weaknesses and hunting down our prey to their political extinction. We relish the chase. Perhaps if we respected our politicians more, who are entrusted with a huge responsibility on our behalf, we might receive the respect of their honesty in return.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So, meanwhile, are Donald Trump’s tweets the nearest we will get to knowing the honest views of a politician? If this is as good as it gets, how sad. </span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-40484635915356779382018-02-02T18:51:00.000+00:002018-02-05T10:26:55.346+00:00Beguiling statistics<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m not accustomed to watching BBC’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The One Show</i>, but I did catch it on Wednesday this week, when there was an item on the charity Dentaid in Yorkshire town of Dewsbury. It mainly works overseas, but, as its website (<a href="https://www.dentaid.org/uk/">https://www.dentaid.org/uk/</a>) puts it, “It is a sad fact that many people in Britain are unable to access safe, affordable dental care. Although the NHS offers first class dental services, many vulnerable people aren’t registered with a dentist and only seek treatment when they are suffering pain.<br />“In some parts of the country there are long waiting lists for NHS dentists and people are developing dental problems while they are waiting for a place to become available.<br />“Dentaid is also aware that homeless people, those with a history of drug and alcohol abuse or patients with mental health problems can face obstacles when visiting a dental surgery.<br />“Furthermore, up to 40 per cent of children in the UK are not receiving any dental check-ups or oral health education. <br />Dentaid has a range of projects in the UK to tackle these problems.It offers free dental service to those who can’t get NHS treatment for one reason or another.”&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One of those was the mobile clinic visiting Dewsbury, treating around 200 people in a fortnight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yqPfGe8sUwg/WndIzSmeZII/AAAAAAAAArk/vpp9aDHHaEMWzI2_zhMVh3WjUgH63FzngCLcBGAs/s1600/Dewsbury-treatment-e1507888376881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1335" data-original-width="1512" height="282" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yqPfGe8sUwg/WndIzSmeZII/AAAAAAAAArk/vpp9aDHHaEMWzI2_zhMVh3WjUgH63FzngCLcBGAs/s320/Dewsbury-treatment-e1507888376881.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo from Dentaid's website; treatment in Dewsbury</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This post isn’t about the multiple reasons, such as the cutting of school dental services and the push towards privatising health services, that have given rise to this. However it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>about a passing remark made by Eddie Crouch, Vice Chair of the British Dental Association, being interviewed by Alex Jones and Matt Baker.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He stated, “Access to local NHS dentistry is a problem everywhere.” And so Alex Jones commented, with I assume a government statistic, “You know, there has been an increase in NHS dentists, 20%; so you would think that would improve things slightly. But not so?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eddie Crouch: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Well, what we’re talking about there is the global number of dentists actually in the NHS, but we’re not talking about the number working full-time in the NHS. That figure is irrelevant really. If the whole time numbers of dentists working in the NHS hasn’t increased, and in fact the funding hasn’t increased for a long time; so even if there were more dentists working in the NHS, they’re only working with the same amount of funding.”</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He is of course right. Governments are fond of confounding criticism with statistics. Just watch Prime Minister’s Questions or listen to the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Today </i>programme. However one can select statistics to prove any case. Perhaps the most egregious example is to do with unemployment. The number of unemployed people has according to government figures been gratifyingly decreasing year by year. And yet oddly the average standard of living has also been falling and homelessness rising. One is therefore left with questions such as how many of the “employed” are working part-time, how many are on zero hours contracts, what sort of jobs are these “employed” working in and how many have been excluded from benefits by other means. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The important question is not about the statistics, but about the outcome. Mark Twain was reported as saying, “Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’” I think he meant that statistics could be used to prove anything.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It's an eloquent commentary on the current state of the NHS that desperate patients are being compelled to resort either to private firms - or to third-world charities.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-55335639081344736462018-01-31T12:05:00.000+00:002018-01-31T12:18:50.908+00:00Scape-goating Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gtwbAjLCVcg/WnGo6fv8lKI/AAAAAAAAAq4/szFNZbPNYbgYpnEkJyK0FO4BE_3kCeuaACLcBGAs/s1600/26991901_757032507835989_7437116268771410266_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="672" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gtwbAjLCVcg/WnGo6fv8lKI/AAAAAAAAAq4/szFNZbPNYbgYpnEkJyK0FO4BE_3kCeuaACLcBGAs/s400/26991901_757032507835989_7437116268771410266_n.jpeg" width="280" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I referred to the NHS Newsday post on the left in a comment on my post of Carillion. It should give us all pause for thought and check any enthusiasm for contracting out even minor services. Here it is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Jeremy Hunt, whom I suspect of being the smiling face of NHS privatisation – and it appears I’m not alone (</span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/jeremy-hunt-judicial-review-stephen-hawking-accountable-care-organisations-back-door-privatisation-a8184161.html"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Stephen Hawking and others accuse Jeremy Hunt of backdoor NHS privatisation</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">) -, but I agreed with him when he tweeted that he was “concerned” about the implications of the case of Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba. The General Medical Council may have been technically correct in upholding the rulings of the court, but if the original court did not hear all the evidence surrounding the tragic death of Jack Adcock, particularly about the systemic failures in the Royal Leicester Infirmary and the health trust then the question is whether justice was done in the first place. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I understand the boy’s mother wanting someone to be held responsible, but it seems unlikely that the right person was found guilty. The fact that Dr Bawa-Garba’s fellow doctors have crowd-funded over £200,000 to remedy what they fear is a miscarriage of justice which could affect them all is telling. An orthopaedic registrar explained their feelings on their Facebook page.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/bonesandjoints/?hc_ref=ARRfcWu3dIwly5hNsu06EyY5C0jKslPbbUrP4r2aYRJhKzA8nID9Lb9PHJniltvrXcI&amp;fref=nf"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Orthopaedic Registrar</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-field-code: &quot; HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.facebook\.com\/bonesandjoints\/posts\/765705346947910\0022 \\t \0022\0022 &quot;;"><span class="MsoHyperlink">26 January at 22:17</span></span> · </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“So yesterday, a highly regarded junior doctor was struck off the GMC register after the GMC successfully appealed against the judgement of the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“She was struck off because a child died. And that is a terrible thing. But as a tribe, we junior doctors are horrified. Why? Because this junior registrar, just back at work after more than a year off for maternity leave, has been scapegoated for system failings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">She was doing the job of two registrars, and the consultant who was supposed to be supervising her was in another city. So she was covering six wards and dealing with medical issues on the surgical wards, plus taking referrals and calls, with one FY1 (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">foundation year 1 doctor</i>) and one SHO (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">senior house officer</i>), both of whom were new to paediatrics. She was moving as quickly as she could, and working as hard as she could. She was no doubt anxious to make a good impression in her new post. She had had no trust induction. The blood reporting system was broken. She had missed handover because of a cardiac arrest. She mixed up two children and confused one DNAR (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do not attempt resuscitation</i>) child with another who was not - note the nurses had swapped the two patients beds around, and not told her. Concerns about the child deteriorating were also not raised to her by the nursing team. The child was given a medication for blood pressure, the last thing you would want for an unwell, dehydrated child, which she had quite rightly not prescribed, and then they arrested. How is this manslaughter? How she was then treated by her senior colleague and by the police when they arrested her 18 months later (it's not polite or reasonable to keep a breastfeeding mother away from her two-week old baby for seven hours while questioning her and any statement she signed at that time must be considered under duress) is another, horrifying issue. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“So why are we horrified? We have all been here. We have all been that doctor who is doing the job of more than one person, where our boss is not helping, and we are hours behind in what we need to do, everyone is annoyed with us, and we are annoyed with ourselves because we know our patients are not getting the care they should have. We have all been desperate to eat, and go to the toilet, and just sit down and do nothing for five minutes. We have all mixed patients up. So all of us look at this and think: 'This could me'.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There’s an impressive professional assessment of the affair by a number of paediatric consultants: <a href="http://www.54000doctors.org/blogs/an-account-by-concerned-uk-paediatric-consultants-of-the-tragic-events-surrounding-the-gmc-action-against-dr-bawa-garba.html">Account of GMC action against Dr Bawa-Garba</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As a mere layman, it seems that the hospital administration which permitted such pressure to be placed on a comparatively junior doctor’s shoulders have some answering to do. It appears to me that the sad sad death of a precious boy with Down’s Syndrome was caused by something more than one doctor’s human error. It involves poor management within the hospital, the irresponsible stretching of resources and, ultimately, the restricting of those resources by central government for its own socio-political purposes. That the individual doctor at the fulcrum of the system which caused her to make a mistake which proved fatal should bear the whole blame is a reprehensible example of scape-goating – a habit which it seems is becoming increasingly popular. There was once a time when the man at the top would accept responsibility for things which went wrong on his watch. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In the words of <a href="https://www.bowgroup.org/news/bow-group-health-research-fellow-jon-stanley-responds-gmc-decision-dr-bawa-garba">a searing article from the right-wing Bow Group</a>, </span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“The outcome is to inflict a penalty on a single individual; to destroy an otherwise flawless career on this chain <i>of</i> events should chill every professional and indeed any member of the public. We all have a right to know our accuser and in this case it was clearly not the GMC as a whole. It has put back accountability of healthcare at least a decade by returning to the culture of shame the system <i>by blaming</i> the doctor. It was this refusal to see systemic failures that led to so many deaths in Mid Staffs and Morecambe Bay among others and has led in a much less publicised manner to a cruel and needless assault on the mental health and financial viability of many doctors, for some <i>of whom</i> it was too much to survive.”&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally I recommend an excellent post by Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor who knows the pressures of being a junior hospital doctor in the NHS. She expresses the dangers of the case far more clearly than me. <a href="http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/01/29/rachel-clarke-the-hadiza-bawa-garba-case-is-a-watershed-for-patient-safety/">The Hadija Bawa-Garba case is a watershed for patient safety</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-60124428851967718962018-01-29T12:18:00.000+00:002018-01-29T12:33:04.979+00:00Bat and bird norms<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This morning before dawn I woke up to hear our nocturnal robin singing quite energetically. I guess it’s not perversity that makes him or her tweet away in the night. I’ve always assumed it was the result of his/her territory being over the road from one of those orange sodium street lights. However I believe that this habit predates cars and electric lights. He's not abnormal. He may not, after all, have been corrupted by our modern culture.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It put me in mind of a story I’ve just come across in a blog article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://joshweed.com/2018/01/turning-unicorn-bat-post-announce-end-marriage/">Turning a Unicorn into a Bat: the post in which we announce the end of our marriage</a>. </i>It's a long and moving article about a gay husband and straight wife divorcing after a long and happy marriage held together by their shared faith. Lolly, wife to Josh, summarises the story like this. “<i>Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. It’s a charming story with beautiful illustrations.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4r07He6xq0I/Wm8LO9k-NXI/AAAAAAAAAqk/dpXfGCSbnpcYP7Nje5ma0erwJA-BpO_3gCLcBGAs/s1600/786256.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4r07He6xq0I/Wm8LO9k-NXI/AAAAAAAAAqk/dpXfGCSbnpcYP7Nje5ma0erwJA-BpO_3gCLcBGAs/s1600/786256.jpeg" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Stellaluna was a tiny baby fruit bat. One day, Stellaluna’s mother was out flying with Stellaluna, when suddenly an owl attacked them. The owl knocked Stellaluna out of her mother’s grasp, but luckily she ended up safely in a bird’s nest. Stellaluna was allowed to stay in the bird’s nest as long as she acted like a bird. She ended up giving up all of her bat ways—she slept at night, ate bugs, and never hung upside down because Mama Bird told her that those things were wrong. Stellaluna tried very hard to be a good bird, even when it was very difficult. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“One night, Stellaluna ended up finding her bat family who convinced her that her bat ways were not wrong for her—that they were part of who she was. Maybe they were wrong for a bird, but not for a bat. They fed her delicious mango and taught her to fly at night and she realized she never had to eat bugs again. When she finally accepted her identity as a bat, she found happiness she never knew.” </span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If you want to hear the whole story being read, you can hear it here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLRIvyWUzxs"><i><b>Stellaluna </b>read</i></a>. Full life must include being the way you were made, mustn't it? When we dictate that someone should be like us, we run the danger of killing the real them.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLRIvyWUzxs"><br /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-field-code: &quot; HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.amazon\.com\/gp\/product\/0152802177\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0152802177&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=joshlolly2018-20&amp;linkId=fc36fe0d7d9525bd6cf83b7332aa417e\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 &quot;;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-11142704660007827202018-01-17T16:45:00.000+00:002018-01-17T16:57:15.421+00:00For whom the bells toll<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SaG5ccw3U1Q/Wl97UodIo-I/AAAAAAAAAp0/ph8l1FwcRgE8O914qKDzMaRijCs9NvamwCLcBGAs/s1600/1024px-Corcieux_%252888%2529_Rue_de_l%2527Ho%25CC%2582tel_de_Ville.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SaG5ccw3U1Q/Wl97UodIo-I/AAAAAAAAAp0/ph8l1FwcRgE8O914qKDzMaRijCs9NvamwCLcBGAs/s400/1024px-Corcieux_%252888%2529_Rue_de_l%2527Ho%25CC%2582tel_de_Ville.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courcieux (Wikipedia fr)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m really annoyed at Carillion. I don’t know where they got their name from, but it’s very close to the sound I first heard camping with our family in the pretty village of Courcieux in the Vosges Mountains. From the campsite we could hear the “carillon” of bells from St Mary of the Assumption’s church, playing a hymn. That was a great holiday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However, my annoyance can be as nothing to the desperation of those tens of thousands affected by the collapse of Carillion, the second biggest construction and services company in the country – not only those employed directly but also those working for its subcontractors. Small and medium-sized companies face bankruptcy. Workers are likely to lose jobs and pensions, facing insecurity for themselves and their families. Meanwhile the bosses of Carillion, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall as far back as 2016, tried to ring-fence their bonuses and their pay, so that despite the collapse of the huge firm they ran <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i>would continue to receive their 6-figure salaries for another nine months. <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/90973/carillion-fat-cat-bosses-in-reward-for-failure-row">Carillion bosses rewards (The Week)</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And it appears that the function of the company (and others like it) was merely to tender for government contracts, at the lowest possible price to undercut other bidders, and then to subcontract the work to smaller companies which they squeezed in one way or another such as delaying payments. On the way they bought up potential competition such as the old family construction firms, McAlpines and Laings, thus reducing the field of those available for tendering. So what in effect did they do? To my amateur eye it seems they acted as middle men between public authorities and private contractors, a role once carried out in-house by central and local government – and of course they creamed off profits for the directors, management and shareholders. A prodigal waste of public money. </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NEsctCSOPOM/Wl98lOCOARI/AAAAAAAAAqA/GOP-5Lpg6XwxxZahj6Q_bQXeC-TEbL4CQCLcBGAs/s1600/carillion_0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="710" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NEsctCSOPOM/Wl98lOCOARI/AAAAAAAAAqA/GOP-5Lpg6XwxxZahj6Q_bQXeC-TEbL4CQCLcBGAs/s400/carillion_0.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: The Week</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I watched Prime Minister’s Questions today, hoping to see some depth of sympathy at the impending flood of human misery which the Carillion collapse is about to unleash and some real anger at malpractice that led to it. But not at all! I appreciate that the government did not “manage” Carillion, as Mrs May pointed out, but their due diligence must be up for question. But what I saw as she talked about it was precious little genuine concern from the front bench, just nods – but of course they are not about to lose their livelihoods. And there was no recognition that the Carillion affair is a stress-test for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and it has revealed its fatal flaw. Private profit is no partner for public works.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;lucida grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s to be hoped that this Carillion carillon is tolling the death knell of the whole ill-conceived PFI project, and ringing in a new dawn for the tens of thousands of our neighbours whose future is now so uncertain.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-19098599432499634812018-01-12T17:50:00.001+00:002018-01-12T17:50:36.940+00:00Books of grief <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’ve just finished an excellent short book which we were lent. It’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One for Sorrow</i> by Alan Hargrave, who is now retired as a vicar.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9R9aws3me84/WljzmPVuuQI/AAAAAAAAApg/3_NfX-XQhPkyMleo16beV8kxEdcXyUZiQCLcBGAs/s1600/rsz_one_for_sorrow_magpie.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1600" height="260" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9R9aws3me84/WljzmPVuuQI/AAAAAAAAApg/3_NfX-XQhPkyMleo16beV8kxEdcXyUZiQCLcBGAs/s400/rsz_one_for_sorrow_magpie.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It&nbsp;“relates the story of the loss of 21-year-old Tom to cancer, and how his family lived through the aftermath. When Alan began writing the memoir, he believed it would be about his son’s illness and death. He soon realized, however, that he was recording his own painful journey through the ‘valley of the shadow’, as a father and as someone responsible for ministering to others in similar situations. His core beliefs were challenged and his perspective on life changed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Now retired, Alan is passionate about the capacity we all have to grow through adversity and, like our crucified God, rise up from pain and death to live and love and laugh again.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Inspired by </span><a href="http://spckpublishing.co.uk/blog/2017/07/one-for-sorrow/"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">the classic poem</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">, and beautifully and poignantly written, this memoir is destined to become a classic.” So goes the publisher’s (SPCK) blurb. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My reaction was relief that Mr Hargrave is searingly honest – about the pain, the despair and his doubt, and indeed his loss of faith during bereavement. It’s refreshing to hear a vicar reacting to a verse often trotted out as comfort to the suffering: “It’s a load of bullshit.” None of the usual anodyne platitudes cut through the pain of losing a son. In the end we are reminded that in Christian thought we have a God who has been there too.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What took me by surprise was the incident that reduced me to tears. It wasn’t Tom’s death, harrowing though that is; it was Mr Hargrave’s farewell to the church where he’d been vicar to become a canon at Ely Cathedral. On reflection, I suppose it was a sign of how affected I was by my enforced retirement, though I didn’t feel it at the time. The writer describes how three years after Tom’s death, in the Ryder Cup, Europe “creamed” the USA. “Yet, the following week I feel terrible, plunged into a deep, dark place of depression and anger. I cannot understand why. Then I remember why. What happens the week after you win the Ryder Cup? Answer: your son dies.” Tickets to see the Ryder Cup at the Belfry were Tom’s last present to his father, who loves playing and watching golf. Maybe I miss being a vicar more than I admit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0rVwapwcQHM/WljzVSbRCRI/AAAAAAAAApk/gw6I-WQSFOgNnxfhldqnmP2MLdD_XUc1gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Book-Cover-End-to-End-V2-150x150.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0rVwapwcQHM/WljzVSbRCRI/AAAAAAAAApk/gw6I-WQSFOgNnxfhldqnmP2MLdD_XUc1gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Book-Cover-End-to-End-V2-150x150.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-no-proof: yes;">This is the second book I’ve read recently by a parent who lost a son to cancer. The first was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘End to End’ – with love </i>by Lorraine George, about her son Rob. That was a similarly harrowing account of an equally painful dying. They are quite different books about individual families’ experience; what they have in common is ruthless honesty. And, I suppose the truth is that no two deaths are the same. However, it may be comforting for others going through similar bereavements to know that they are not alone.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-37126136972125049802018-01-09T11:26:00.003+00:002018-01-09T11:26:44.246+00:00A Happy New Year <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Lucida Grande"; panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Well, my nightmare hasn’t actually happened. We’re still here, stuck in to 2018.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A new year! I’m not a great one for New Year’s resolutions, mainly because I’m so rotten at keeping them. However, I think this year I might have a try. My resolution is to “but no buts” – of course, the spelling is important! To butt a butt is entirely different, and something I have no intention of doing that either, even if I could.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I guess you’d recognise the sort of thing I’m talking about. Someone says, “I’m not a racist, BUT…” Or “I’ve nothing against her – I’m sure she’s a nice enough person – BUT…” And the bit that comes after the BUT always contradicts the bit before. It’s prejudice disguised as politeness. In fact it’s sheer dishonesty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">An uncomfortable test is to reverse the sentences. Some B&amp;B owners in the 1960s put signs in their windows reading, “No blacks, no Irish, no dogs”. They might have claimed they weren’t discriminating. However, put it the other way round and the truth is clear: “I don’t want any of them in my B&amp;B; therefore, I AM a racist.” Or, “You know, she’s one of those immigrants who take all our jobs; so I DO have a lot against her.” We shouldn’t kid ourselves with the “I’ve nothing against” lie. But me no buts!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Shakespeare never said, “but me no buts”, as prime minister, Jim Hacker, wrongly thought. It came much later. However much earlier Jesus did say, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, and let your ‘no’ be’no’.” In other words, don’t dress up what you say in disguise. Say what you mean. But that isn’t an excuse for being rude or hurting others. Because he also said, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” And he said we’ll be judged by our careless words. That means, whatever we utter matters hugely. Ouch! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So in 2018 I’m going to try to follow the three gold tests my mother told us children to ask before we spoke. “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” Happy New Year, everyone.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-27066960093392360822017-12-22T12:11:00.000+00:002017-12-22T12:11:00.159+00:00Nuclear nightmare <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BEQjTKZ9rzU/Wjz1GerLaTI/AAAAAAAAAn4/Y4poz_9MtussGJZejiXOlTmT77Am7Rd7ACLcBGAs/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1785.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="271" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BEQjTKZ9rzU/Wjz1GerLaTI/AAAAAAAAAn4/Y4poz_9MtussGJZejiXOlTmT77Am7Rd7ACLcBGAs/s400/fullsizeoutput_1785.jpeg" width="332" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last night I had the first nightmare I have had for decades about nuclear war. I imagine that I last dreamed about it during the cold war – or maybe the Yom Kippur War. Last night I saw an American rocket taking off. It was quickly followed by a nuclear explosion which was approaching burning up an oak tree. “Don’t look at it,” I said to the woman next to me. But it was too late. Brighter than a thousand suns, it swept towards us. We were blind.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-67584070865322590782017-10-26T18:04:00.000+01:002017-10-28T10:26:57.163+01:00MND matters<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fI8HrmajrHw/WfIMQttsKWI/AAAAAAAAAg8/EtP2uC31ETAv1KzSgPI8g6Xui0c42jFOwCEwYBhgL/s1600/fullsizeoutput_1658.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="965" data-original-width="1600" height="192" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fI8HrmajrHw/WfIMQttsKWI/AAAAAAAAAg8/EtP2uC31ETAv1KzSgPI8g6Xui0c42jFOwCEwYBhgL/s320/fullsizeoutput_1658.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.5pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 14.5pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Quite a full seven days to do with MND <i>inter al</i> for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">We drove to London on 16<sup>th</sup> under a red sun and a livid sky. It was weirdly beautiful. That evening we shared a great mixed meze at Galata Pera (<a href="http://www.galatapera.co.uk/">http://www.galatapera.co.uk/</a>), a Turkish restaurant by the river in Brentford, with a long-standing friend. It was the best meal I’ve enjoyed in London (except the one cooked for me by my then girl-friend many years ago!). The next morning we made our way to the QEII Centre in Westminster where there was to be an APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) and MNDA (Motor Neurone Disease Association) Reception. But before that we shared a drink with the admirable Vicky Beeching (<a href="https://vickybeeching.com/">https://vickybeeching.com/</a>). She is one of the bravest women I have ever met – and I have met many of them. She is gentle and strong, and full of integrity. The abuse and trolling when she came out was without understanding, compassion or excuse. </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U9YxKpX-nQY/WfIMm0DsgsI/AAAAAAAAAg8/pknBzqGh-CUupCj25E1FK-6kp1Yr5bY5wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_1478.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1425" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U9YxKpX-nQY/WfIMm0DsgsI/AAAAAAAAAg8/pknBzqGh-CUupCj25E1FK-6kp1Yr5bY5wCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_1478.jpg" width="285" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">With Vicky Beeching at the QEII Centre</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Then it was upstairs to the Parliamentary Reception, which was a very moving experience. The sandwiches were nice, but the meat of the event were the keynote speeches and the conversations with MPs. The speeches were given by Chris Evans MP who is an officer of the APPG on MND, Rob Owen who is living with MND, TV Presenter and MND Association Patron Charlotte Hawkins, and Penny Mordaunt MP, Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health. Undoubtedly the most impressive were those given by Rob Owen and Charlotte Hawkins. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mxid0RG2t2k/WfIP1KhMygI/AAAAAAAAAhc/xd5k1j1-CbQaUKhOwtLYTabth7em-tfMwCEwYBhgL/s1600/37723457476_f4cb9d82ee_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mxid0RG2t2k/WfIP1KhMygI/AAAAAAAAAhc/xd5k1j1-CbQaUKhOwtLYTabth7em-tfMwCEwYBhgL/s320/37723457476_f4cb9d82ee_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Rob Owen talked about his experience of applying for PIP (Personal Independence Payment), the benefit granted to people with extra financial demands from ill-health and disability. In brief he was first assessed by a health professional who understood his needs. Later he was called for reassessment, which was carried out this time by a non-professional – and his monthly payment was reduced. Nonsensical since MND is an untreatable degenerative disease. When he queried it, he was again treated to an amateur tick-box assessment and had his payment removed entirely. It was only by formally appealing to a panel including a magistrate and a medic that he was given the maximum amount of PIP – backdated to the beginning. What a waste of nervous energy and taxpayers’ money!</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pZWEXi6Qk14/WfINuiIbDsI/AAAAAAAAAhE/QK3hoYntOncMK9ADliaRWNT9ZpCunj5LACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pZWEXi6Qk14/WfINuiIbDsI/AAAAAAAAAhE/QK3hoYntOncMK9ADliaRWNT9ZpCunj5LACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1472.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">With Charlotte Hawkins</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Charlotte Hawkins talked from the point of view of family, and painted a vivid picture of watching someone you love die from MND; as she put it, seeing the person you love disappear before your eyes. Her father died in 2015. She moved us all and opened MPs’ eyes to the reality of the disease. (You can hear the speeches here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mndassociation/videos/vb.110477469046698/1678543855573377/?type=2&amp;theater">MNDA Parliamentary Reception</a></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/mndassociation/videos/vb.110477469046698/1678543855573377/?type=2&amp;theater"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></a><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OeABXAJHrKs/WfIOMtsOw8I/AAAAAAAAAhI/2RD_-RPECzwKXmp4P_i9BbCRKTRMXZ3LACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1185" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OeABXAJHrKs/WfIOMtsOw8I/AAAAAAAAAhI/2RD_-RPECzwKXmp4P_i9BbCRKTRMXZ3LACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6115.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">With Robert Courts MP</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly only one of the six Oxfordshire MPs came to the reception. Indeed although I had sent a personal invitation to my local MP, I did not receive so much as an apology – simply a proforma bit of party-political spiel about how much the government cares about conditions like MND… a week after the event. You might tell I’m not overly impressed! However, at least, new MP, Robert Courts, from Witney was there, and listened and was concerned.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The focus of the reception was to inform parliamentarians both about the disease and its costs – and how important it is that people who have it receive the support they need WHEN they need it, which in the vast majority of cases is very quickly as the disease so rapidly removes your independence. And of course how unnecessary reassessment is with a progressive degenerative disease, assuming it’s been correctly carried out in the first place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">And so back home – and this week. On Tuesday Jane forewent her usual gym class so that we could attend my fourth and final meeting of the Oxford MND Care Centre Steering Group. I’ve been the patient representative. I’ve said often how excellent the Centre here is. We have two top-rate consultants (who happen also to be professors), a specialist nurse (who coordinates the show), an OT (who is the country’s expert on wheelchairs for neurological patients) plus access to specialist physios and respiratory nurses. The local MNDA branch also supplies volunteers who welcome you and make sure you know what’s going on and who to see when. Part of the meeting was devoted to an audit which, I think, the Centre has to do in order to continue to be recognised (and supported) by the MNDA. There’s a danger, it seems to me, of extending the already pervasive evil culture of performance indicators. The Oxford Centre is always working at improving and being responsive to patients’ needs. It doesn’t need to waste its health professionals’ time in filling out tick boxes and sending out questionnaires.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Association faces the understandable dilemma of not wanting to fund what should be statutory provisions, such as nurses or dieticians, and yet there are charities which successfully augment the NHS – such as Macmillan Care, Marie Curie and many others. The MNDA is comparatively well supported with an income of £17,391,000 in the 11 months up to December last year. The staff (189 of them) cost £6,268,000, for whom private medical insurance (!) was £43,000. I wonder if they could fund some hospice beds or nursing home rooms – or even adapted holiday places. Don’t get me wrong; the MNDA is a very effective charity and does a great deal of good for us, particularly at the local level. I wonder if it just might be a tad top-heavy.</span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-59731806776054815262017-10-14T19:00:00.001+01:002017-10-18T11:31:20.865+01:00A book worth waiting for<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt;">Tanya Marlow, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Those who Wait<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></i>2017</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For an evangelical (i.e. Bible-believing) Christian to confess that the Bible no longer excites and delights him sounds like heresy. However, I suspect I am not alone among my generation in feeling that way. We read it (or even study it occasionally) out of duty or habit, but it doesn’t feel “living and active”, as we are told it is. It has become over-familiar. We know the stories and the lessons well; we have after all heard them or read them often over the years, and we or they have become jaded. It is only the exceptional teacher or preacher who revives its immediacy for us.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzZZuaj3lOo/WeJFLp_6F6I/AAAAAAAAAfg/vm7XS4x5HeET58xcuOh_ro8qsBtnaU43gCEwYBhgL/s1600/18193735_1374791299302880_8964809058623342698_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzZZuaj3lOo/WeJFLp_6F6I/AAAAAAAAAfg/vm7XS4x5HeET58xcuOh_ro8qsBtnaU43gCEwYBhgL/s320/18193735_1374791299302880_8964809058623342698_n.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tanya Marlow is one of those exceptional teachers. Sadly we are denied listening to her as she has suffered from </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">myalgic encephalomyelitis for over twenty years and </span><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">been largely confined to her bed for the last seven of them. (See <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tPTunWvR4o">Tanya Marlow talking about ME</a>.) However she writes a blog called “Thorns and Gold” (<a href="http://tanyamarlow.com/">Tanya's website and blog</a>), and has written a downloadable book. Now she has written <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Those who Wait </i>(Malcolm Down Publishing, £9.99), which looks at four characters in the Bible and their experience of waiting: Sarah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary. What Tanya does is imagine them telling their own stories. However her retelling is always backed up with scholarship, the book ending with discussion about the theological and historical issues involved on the way. Each character’s story is told in five short chapters, with pauses for reflection after each. Finally there is a section entitled, “The God who waits”, reminding us that we are not alone in the experience of waiting.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L_MR_IqhBsw/WeJFT-jAawI/AAAAAAAAAfg/apEGAK_-KDwgvLzxnjuS8hcBO9hg55pJwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Those-Who-Wait-Cover-Preview-333x500.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L_MR_IqhBsw/WeJFT-jAawI/AAAAAAAAAfg/apEGAK_-KDwgvLzxnjuS8hcBO9hg55pJwCEwYBhgL/s320/Those-Who-Wait-Cover-Preview-333x500.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think this is a brilliant book. For one thing it’s multi-purpose! You can use it for personal devotion; you can use it in group studies; a church fellowship could use it for Advent (you might detect the characters follow an Advent pattern, beginning with the patriarchs and prophets). Mainly it’s brilliant in the way it shines light on the Bible narrative, reminding us that it’s about God’s interaction with people like us and their reaction to him in their own struggles with life. Tanya Marlow shows us, not only does the Bible engage with real people, but through it we can find a God who’s concerned with the issues where the rubber hits the road. The section headings illustrate this: “Sarah’s story – Dealing with Disappointment; Waiting for Joy”, “Isaiah’s story – Dealing with Delay; Waiting for Peace”, “John the Baptist’s story – Dealing with Doubt; Waiting for Justice”, “Mary’s story – Dealing with Disgrace; Waiting for Jesus”. If you’ve never been troubled by any of those eight concerns, the book will probably be of only academic interest to you; but if you recognise them, this book will encourage you that you’re not alone, and that you’ve not been forgotten by the Comforter who caused the stories to be written in the first place. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve read quite few Lent and Advent books over the years. This is quite the most readable and exciting I’ve come across. I loved the way it reengaged me with the Bible by quite unexpected roads. I especially liked the Celtic-like blessings after each character’s section, such as this: </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“May you who are cloaked in and choked by cynicism </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Be broken by the grace of God.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">May you who are in hiding </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Find God’s hands held out to you </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As an open invitation of love.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">May you see God’s face when it all feels too late, </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And may you encounter the God who sees you, knows you, loves you still. </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Amen.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I suspect that this vibrant book is the product of years of enforced silence and frustration, rather like a minor prophet's. It will probably have a wider audience than Tanya would ever had from one pulpit or conference platform. My hope is that it will have a huge circulation. It deserves it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(<i>Those who Wait </i>is published on 16th October, and can be ordered from Wordery and other online and retail outlets, I believe.) </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 15.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-8517302863486585742017-09-29T11:59:00.000+01:002017-09-29T18:42:40.434+01:00Playboy Hefner dies<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hugh Hefner, whose death was announced yesterday, wasn't, one gathers, the nicest of men - although he does have his advocates among those who knew him well and those who regard him as a vanguard of progressive values. I might harbour doubts about his ethics, though there's no doubting his business acumen in cashing in on the mores of the post-war years.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, my single brush with the Playboy empire was quite different.</span></span></span></span></span></b></span></span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">40 years ago Jane and I had been married for three years and had started a family, with our first child. I was teaching in my second teaching post at our local Catholic comprehensive near Watford. We didn’t have much spare cash, and had bought a grey two-door Morris Minor from a clearly trustworthy gentleman who was involved in a religious youth movement. &nbsp;</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">My wife’s parents had a holiday home in the Isle of Wight. Our new (old) car’s first long run was to visit them there. To avoid the traffic we set off very early with our daughter on the back seat in her rectangular no-frills cumbersome brown carrycot – there were no fancy multi-purpose buggies in those days and of course no M3. All was fine and carefree until we were well away from London. I think we’d got as far as Hampshire down the A3 when the engine began to stutter; and steam – or was it smoke? – billowed out from beneath the bonnet. We pulled off the road. The first thing to do was to rescue our daughter from the back seat before the car caught fire. Then what? No AA membership and anyway no mobile phones. And hardly any traffic. The only thing must be to walk until we found a garage.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I don’t know if we prayed, but at that moment a white Ford Escort drew up and an attractive blonde emerged, and asked if we needed any help. By now it was clear that the radiator had run dry. The young lady knew the road and told us there was a garage a mile or so down the road. She offered to drive us there. While my Jane looked after our daughter with our car and belongings, I went with our rescuer to the garage for some water. She then drove me back to our car, where I was able to put enough in to get us on our way again. (Subsequently we repaired the radiator with sealant.)</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JfLKUXsY-_A/Wc4lSjl7PZI/AAAAAAAAAec/fJeDQ3JpBSozgggHc5uErfxxLrDDz0hTQCLcBGAs/s1600/playboy-bunny-vector.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="700" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JfLKUXsY-_A/Wc4lSjl7PZI/AAAAAAAAAec/fJeDQ3JpBSozgggHc5uErfxxLrDDz0hTQCLcBGAs/s320/playboy-bunny-vector.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It was only as she drove away that we noticed the small sticker on the rear of her car. It was the unmistakable Playboy rabbit silhouette. We concluded that she was a bunny girl driving home after a long night on duty. I’m sure we thanked her at the time. But if she should ever read this, we’d love say thank you again, for an unexpected act of kindness in rescuing a desperate young family by the roadside. I like to think we met an angel in disguise that early morning.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"> </span></span>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-91066243842112503462017-09-23T13:37:00.000+01:002017-09-23T16:17:25.214+01:00A tale of two paradoxes<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two news stories have struck me this week.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">One is the extraordinary ineptness of the contractor employed to carry out tests for PIPs (Personal Independence Payments) for disabled people in the North East, who has hired rooms in a luxury spa owned by multi-millionaire, Duncan Bannatyne, for the purpose. I can imagine few things worse than being pushed in my wheelchair through a place thronging with healthy and wealthy spa-goers padding around in fluffy slippers and snow-white bath robes on their way to a massage, a manicure, and a meal of coleslaw and prosciutto, or working off their excess weight on cross-trainers, or showing off their finely toned bodies between the swimming pool and the sauna. It is hard to imagine a more inappropriate venue for what is already a humiliating enough experience - an assessment designed to save the government £1.3bn by 2020, by cutting the number of people who receive DLA (Disability Living Allowance, being replaced by PIPs) and in particular the mobility element which gave disabled people freedom to get out and about.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is true that supporting the disabled costs us all a lot of money. It's also true that the introduction of PIPs has already caused a lot of personal harm and hardship. "<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 1.0625rem;">PIP assessments have so far led to Motability cars being taken away from 50,000 disabled people. &nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the new assessments were announced to replace the Disability Living Allowance (DLA)&nbsp;in 2016, it was estimated that entitlements would be cut by up to £150 a week for more than half a million people." See Huffington Post article.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/duncan-bannatyne-pip_uk_59bb9774e4b086432b0601e9?">See Huffington Post article</a>. The irony is that the sum result of a lot of misery for a section of the population will in the end barely dent our social services bill a jot, if at all.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MMq_A-tlKn4/WcZ6Ij6V-ZI/AAAAAAAAAeA/RGOxzGBc_kUBPrnj-d1az-1oko3AFHCwQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-09-23%2Bat%2B16.06.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1221" height="185" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MMq_A-tlKn4/WcZ6Ij6V-ZI/AAAAAAAAAeA/RGOxzGBc_kUBPrnj-d1az-1oko3AFHCwQCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-09-23%2Bat%2B16.06.26.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I do realise that a while ago I made a resolution not to whinge so much. But really! Sometimes it all gets too much. So here's my second one. It's about Theresa May's much touted Florence speech. I'm not entirely clear why her minders chose to stage it there. I gather it might have been because of the trading/banking history of the city, or it might have been some sort of convoluted symbolism to do with the Renaissance. Here she was, in the tradition of Michelangelo and the Medicis, launching a second Renaissance in Europe, Mrs May's Renaissance. From the news reports that seems to have been the gist of her message. Brexit is not an end; it's a beginning. It's not a divorce; it's a new glorious "partnership". There were precious few details of what the partnership would look like, just like nothing we had seen before and we need some more time to think about it. What must puzzle objective observers is, then what Brexit was all about. In the referendum campaign we were constantly told that it was about breaking off with the EU, having done with it, breaking free from its shackles. Which sounded very much like a divorce, a very acrimonious one at that. It sounded like "a plague on all your 27 houses".<br /><br />"Brexit," Mrs May intoned, like a mantra, "is Brexit." Now it appears, "Brexit is Brentrance." Whether Europe will allow us to have our cake and eat it remains to be seen.Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-80334137825607770702017-09-09T15:38:00.000+01:002017-09-09T15:45:31.809+01:00Who decides what is NEWS?I get that Hurricane Irma like Harvey is a major natural disaster. Having a friend holiday in the Dominican Republic at the time, I was concerned to know how it would affect her. I understand that its effects for the people of Barbudas and Saint-Martin have been catastrophic, destroying their islands beyond recognition.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The human death toll from Harvey which flooded Houston was at least 70; Irma so far has killed 23 people. Which is tragic. No wonder they have received blanket coverage in our news every day for a fortnight now.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6jH3xakOsM/WbP8VqJMDRI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/EXUx4vGOETgNLUJLyFbSpDJzy0spFVQnwCLcBGAs/s1600/South%2BAsia%2BFloods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="860" height="131" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6jH3xakOsM/WbP8VqJMDRI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/EXUx4vGOETgNLUJLyFbSpDJzy0spFVQnwCLcBGAs/s200/South%2BAsia%2BFloods.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo: TEAR Fund</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Meanwhile<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">in South Asia over 1400 people have died and over 40 million have been affected by flooding in the last two months - but there's a difference. For some reason the floods affecting swathes of Nepal, India and Bangladesh have received minimal news coverage in the UK, despite being among the poorest of countries. The same is true of the flood-created mudslide in Sierra Leone with its death toll of over 1000, earlier in August. Jagat&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #222222;">Patna</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;points out that news of such events should be shared as they are symptoms of a phenomenon that affects us all (see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/houston-texas-floods-storm-harvey-south-east-asia-wont-hear-a7920381.html">Floods in Texas and South east Asia</a>).</span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><br /><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: justify;">What's the reason for the disparity? I fear it may be that resurgent ugly&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">trait of colour prejudice. Perhaps it is the dark side of the US/UK "special&nbsp;relationship": that side of the Atlantic matters much more than the rest of the world, or those lives are that much more valuable.</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #222222;">It seems that we haven't learned that from Shylock's most potent expression of the common humanity of all people, irrespective of creed, colour or any other distinction.</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I am a Jew. Hath<br />not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,<br />dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with<br />the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject<br />to the same diseases, healed by the same means,<br />warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as<br />a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?<br />if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison<br />us, do we not die?" (<i>Merchant of Venice 3.1</i>).&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of Irma one commentator likes to say, "This is a very very bad storm." Although n</span>ews clearly isn't a mere calculus of numbers or size, nevertheless one has to ask what are the criteria by which our opinion-formers decide what we will see or hear by way of the news. And maybe this particularly egregious instance of selectivity over a global phenomenon which should concern us all will make them realise why so many of us now prefer to find our news via other means such as social media.&nbsp;</div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-5742734056152338762017-08-30T15:20:00.001+01:002017-08-30T17:02:45.042+01:00Rachels' books<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">To Pete, Jane &amp; Evelyn</i></b></span><br /><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>I've recently had a birthday, and among the very lovely presents I was given were two books by authors whose Christian names (or forenames, as we're meant to call them now) are both Rachel. They both, for different reasons, captivated me - which you can tell because I who these days am a slow reader read them quickly.<br /><br />The first is <i>The Music Shop</i>&nbsp;by Rachel Joyce, whose other novels (<i>The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry </i>and <i>The Love Song of&nbsp;Queenie Hennessy</i>) I also recommend. It is primarily set in 1988, with the final chapters 20 years later. The story revolves around the single-minded, arguably obsessive, Frank for whom the only worthwhile form of recorded music is vinyl and his shop in a run-down cul-de-sac in a cathedral city which is itself depressed and still bears the scars of wartime bombing. The remaining shops in the street are a florist, a Polish baker, an undertakers', a tattooist, a Catholic souvenir shop, and Frank's music shop. On the other side of the street are terraced houses in various states of disrepair.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PeAHge7-Ao/WabIOSiQ6cI/AAAAAAAAAaM/ufHNNuBNgXEN5mLV3GuFfKew6dPtonGrACLcBGAs/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="746" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--PeAHge7-Ao/WabIOSiQ6cI/AAAAAAAAAaM/ufHNNuBNgXEN5mLV3GuFfKew6dPtonGrACLcBGAs/s320/images.jpeg" width="221" /></span></a></div><br />All the while there are threats from a development company and racist gangs. It is a picture of a community under pressure from progressive and reactionary forces.<br /><br />Frank is no musician, but he has inherited from his Bohemian mother both a love of music and a fear of relationship. However he has a unique gift - the ability to hear instantly what music every person <i>needs</i>. His world and the life of the street is profoundly changed when a woman in a green coat collapses unconscious outside the music shop. All the characters in the book have their own back-stories and carry their own scars. I won't spoil the plot, but content myself with saying that, as with Rachel Joyce's other books, it is ultimately hopeful and carries a message that redemption is possible though hard won.<br /><br />At the moment Jane is reading it. I shall be interested to hear whether she was as captivated as I was.<br /><br />The other book, which arrived out of the blue from my least "respectable" cousin, is <i>Evolving in Monkey Town</i>&nbsp;(now retitled <i>Faith Unravelled</i>). What a gift! It's by Rachel Held Evans (from whose blog I've previously quoted :&nbsp;<a href="https://mydonkeybody.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/pain-in-offering-gay-marriage-in-church.html#comment-form">Pain in the Offering</a>). It's not a new book, published in 2010. It recounts her growing up in the southern states of America, and in particular Dayton, Tennessee, where her father went to teach theology in the conservative Bryan College. For one thing, she is an excellent writer. Dayton was the site of the famous 'Scopes Monkey Trial', staged to draw publicity to the small town. In 1925 John T Scopes, a secondary teacher, was prosecuted by the state for teaching evolution in a state school. The whole thing turned into a debate between 'Modernism' and 'Fundamentalism', between creationism and evolution, and gained worldwide notoriety.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pYxTq_AhvjU/WabIedTVHkI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/s1E5xpZ0lToIW3xsm3AXFD_aPigyWRyGgCLcBGAs/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="446" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pYxTq_AhvjU/WabIedTVHkI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/s1E5xpZ0lToIW3xsm3AXFD_aPigyWRyGgCLcBGAs/s320/images-1.jpeg" width="219" /></span></a></div><br />This Rachel tells how she developed from knowing all the right Christian answers to sceptics' and seekers' questions to being open to accept the mystery of faith. She ends, "If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that serious doubt - the kind that leads to despair - begins not when we start asking God questions but when, out of fear, we stop. In our darkest hours of confusion and in our most glorious moments of clarity, we remain curious but dependent little children, tugging frantically at God's outstretched hands and pleading with every question and every prayer and every tantrum we can muster, 'We want to have a conversation with you!'<br /><br />"God must really love us, because he always answers with such long stories."<br /><br />I found the book invigorating and liberating. It helped me to understand my own journey and myself. As I commented to a friend who asked me how my summer had been:<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;<span style="text-align: justify;">I suppose what reading Rachel’s book helped me see was, a. that I wasn’t a&nbsp;freak and b. that I do still have faith - which has been a considerable relief and a sort of libe<span style="font-family: inherit;">r</span></span></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ation.</span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;helvetica&quot;; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</span>My doubts and questions are by no means fatal. Phew!Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-58911211295169839562017-08-07T16:58:00.001+01:002017-08-07T17:58:03.634+01:00Give Gatlin a breakI suspect a lot of people, including journalists, will be very surprised at whom they see welcomed to heaven. As Shakespeare has Portia declaring, mercy is an attribute of God himself. Therefore,<br />"Though justice be thy plea, consider this,<br />That, in the course of justice, none of us<br />Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;<br />And that same prayer doth teach us all to render<br />The deeds of mercy."<br /><br />On Saturday evening, after watching a football match which proved that women's sport could be just as good as men's (<i>pace </i>Dominic Lawson), we caught the World Athletics 100 metre final and witnessed both the best and worst of responses to a race. You'll scarcely need telling that Justin Gatlin came first, followed by a whisker by Christian Coleman and Usain Bolt. People were understandably disappointed that the extrovert and brilliant Bolt hadn't won his final competitive race. However, the tragic thing was that apart from Bolt and Coleman no one had the grace to congratulate Gatlin. The London crowd booed and the commentators prefixed his name with some qualification like "twice banned drug cheat" Gatlin. That was repeated in every subsequent news report I heard on the BBC, and I gather that the booing was repeated at the medal ceremony. I don't condone drug-taking to enhance performance, not that I have illusions that my opinion matters! Nor do I doubt that in one way or another it's more prevalent than we're told. But is it even true?<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T49qCgUM0og/WYiJeVRdSAI/AAAAAAAAAY8/Wp2tSHA3pnE7btCl8nA56-v7ESRQFIUPwCEwYBhgL/s1600/TELEMMGLPICT000136671347_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1280" height="207" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T49qCgUM0og/WYiJeVRdSAI/AAAAAAAAAY8/Wp2tSHA3pnE7btCl8nA56-v7ESRQFIUPwCEwYBhgL/s320/TELEMMGLPICT000136671347_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Telegraph online</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span id="goog_883741802"></span><span id="goog_883741803"></span><br />However he had served his sentence and, without doubt, is now as rigorously tested for illegal doping as any athlete on earth. Bolt was magnanimous in defeat. He after all came third. The general view seems to be that he had not recovered his previous Olympic form and so overtook Coleman in neither the semi- nor the final. Gatlin, meanwhile, surpassed himself achieving his season's best when it mattered. But the British public, egged on by the media, is an unforgiving animal. Maria Sharapova has been similarly branded for her use of a newly banned drug. And Chris Froome, the gritty Kenyan/British cyclist, fails to receive the plaudits he deserves, partly, in my view, because of Sky Cycling's dubious history in the pharmaceutical department.<br /><br />And so we have the sad spectacle of athletes who have served their sentences for past misdemeanours branded as cheats. There is, it seems, no room for redemption. Justin Gatlin, as well as striving for the top, has also been spending his time educating young Americans about the folly and danger of doping. For a very informative article on the facts of case, I recommend this short account from one of our top sports lawyers: <a href="http://www.morgansl.com/pdfs/Gatlin_article_3.pdf">Mike Morgan, Gatling Article</a>, which leads me to question the very word, "Cheat" - which is frequently used. It seems to verge on the libellous. Even so, as Gatling himself has said this weekend: “I’ve served my time and done community service. I’ve talked to kids and inspire them to walk the right path. That’s all I can do. Society does that with people who make mistakes and I hope that track and field does that too.”<br /><br />So why, I wonder, are we so slow to acknowledge that a debt <i>can </i>be paid? I suspect it might be because we lack the divine quality of mercy. Which according to Portia is bad news for all of us. If we don't have it, what call can we have on mercy dropping as the gentle dew from heaven? We run the danger of a life <i>and </i>death ban.<br /><br />PS I've just seen the latest news that Sara Errani, the Italian who reached the Paris Open Tennis final, has been suspended for an absurd drugs offence which seems to have been caused by entirely accidental food contamination (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/40854182">http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/40854182</a>). Bonkers.Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-12995213467926030832017-05-22T18:42:00.000+01:002017-05-22T18:44:01.369+01:00Women at work<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --> </style><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">I was a bit disturbed this morning listening to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">World Business</i>, I think, on BBC’s World Service. They were talking about women at work, things like the gender pay-gap, maternity/paternity leave, and the small proportion of women on company boards. Sweden was focused on as the “best” for women at work. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The assumption was of course that good = being in remunerated employment. Now far from disagreeing with that, I think that the opportunity to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is highly desirable for everyone, women and men. But it is not the only good. That is a modern and harmful fallacy. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">What most struck me was a comment about bringing up a family at home being “drudgery”. Drudgery? Hard work – certainly. But as Jane pointed out to me, nearly all work has an element of drudgery in it. Sitting in front of computer screens. Answering phone-calls in a call centre. A production line. Agricultural labour. Even the caring professions. But home management is not exceptional drudgery; it’s not unusually dull. In fact there’s probably more variety and skill in being a housewife (or househusband) than the majority of jobs. It’s time we stopped running it down as somehow second class (or third…).</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">It’s often been pointed out how many skills a stay-at-home mother employs. There’s a cheesy YouTube video of a job interview for being a “mom” (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWcJZ210AaM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWcJZ210AaM</a>). From this side of the pond, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily Telegraph </i>listed 26 morning tasks that mothers have (<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10151000/Mothers-have-26-morning-tasks-study-shows.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10151000/Mothers-have-26-morning-tasks-study-shows.html</a>). But they don’t convey half of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">importance</i>of the role of parent, of either sex, passing on language, life-skills and values. Neither do they convey the situations that parents navigate, nurturing children, negotiating teenagers, and often caring for elders. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Come on! Let’s stop denigrating the role of homemaker, and instead give it the honour it deserves. </span></span></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-32875942465975953652017-05-18T17:54:00.000+01:002017-05-19T10:19:56.519+01:00General election seen from a riser-recliner chair<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XGRL54h8EXk/WR3RfKSmHeI/AAAAAAAAAV4/dlDLjeA01a4NCgIifAMiX8fOD9GsAwnygCLcB/s1600/P1000956%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XGRL54h8EXk/WR3RfKSmHeI/AAAAAAAAAV4/dlDLjeA01a4NCgIifAMiX8fOD9GsAwnygCLcB/s400/P1000956%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">I listened to two items on the radio this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The first was an interview with Sir Andrew Dilnot and the second was a reading from Henry Marsh’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Admissions.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And I can keep quiet no longer.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Sir Andrew Dilnot, economist and the country’s leading expert on social care (You may remember his authoritative and widely welcomed report on the subject, which broadly recommended a national insurance scheme to take away the fear of the cost of care in old age - </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://mydonkeybody.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/medical-day.html">https://mydonkeybody.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/medical-day.html</a>), was commenting on the imminent Conservative manifesto proposals concerning funding for the elderly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You can hear the interview here - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08q317m#play">Today programme</a>, at 1 hour, 10 min in. He was measured and he was scathing in his assessment. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">According to a newspaper account, ‘Theresa May’s social care package fails "to tackle the biggest problem” facing elderly people, the man&nbsp;who carried out the coalition’s review into&nbsp;service&nbsp;in England has said.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">‘On the election campaign trail the PM had&nbsp;said&nbsp;politicians could&nbsp;no longer “duck the issue” and that the Government had been “working on a long-term solution” for the needs of an ageing population.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">But Sir Andrew said he was “very surprised” by the new thinking from Downing Street. “New thinking that I’d argue shows a less than full understanding of the problems when there is a green paper that is due to come out later this year,” he added.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">‘Speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Dilnot, who is also a former head of the UK Statistics Authority, said: “The disappointment about these proposals that we’re expecting to hear in the Conservative manifesto later is that they fail to tackle what I’d argue is the biggest problem of all in social care, which is at the moment people facing a position of no control.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">“There is nothing you can do to protect yourself against care costs; you can’t insure because the private sector won’t insure it and by refusing to implement a cap. The Conservatives are now saying that they are not going to provide social insurance for it, so people will be left helpless knowing that what will happen is that if they are unlucky enough to suffer the need for care costs they will be entirely on their own until they are on their last £100,000.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">"The analogy is a bit like saying to somebody you can't insure your house against burning down. If it does burn down then you're completely on your own; you have to pay for all of it until you're down to the last £100,000 of all your assets and income," he said.’</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Independent</i>)</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Someone whose political views are unusually well-informed and reliable messaged me this morning. “Cruel, cruel Conservatives! Sir Andrew D very good on it on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Today</i>. Cost needs to be socialised not put on individuals like this."</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">And he’s right. It’s not just social care which is at risk. Henry Marsh is an eminent neurosurgeon. His book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Admissions – a life in brain surgery,</i> was published a fortnight ago. He retired from the NHS in 2015. In today’s reading he recounted a day’s operating list, of whom the fourth was a lady with diabetes. It revealed the unsustainable pressure that “efficiency” and “targets” have increasingly imposed on the service. The result for one patient was fatal, and for one operating team clearly traumatic. The episode ended with him breaking the news to the family:</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">‘… I wanted to scream to high heaven that it was not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> fault that her blood sugar level had not been checked upon admission, that none of the junior doctors had checked her over, that the anaesthetists had not realised this. It was not my fault that we were bringing patients into the hospital in such a hurry that they were not being properly assessed. I thought of the army of managers who ran the hospital and their political masters who were no less responsible than I was and who would all be sleeping comfortably in their beds tonight, perhaps dreaming of government targets and away days in country house hotels and who rarely if ever had to talk to patients or their relatives. Why should I have to shoulder the responsibility for the whole damn hospital like this when I had so little say in how it is run? Why should I have to apologise? Was it my fault that the ship was sinking? But I kept these thoughts to myself and told them how utterly sorry I was that she was going to die and that I had failed to save her. They listened to me in silence, fighting back their tears. “Thank you, doctor,” one of them said to me, eventually.’</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">It happened last night that a group of us were enjoying each other’s company in my favourite coffee shop, the Cornerstone Café in Grove. We were talking about the questions we’d like to put to candidates in our local hustings on 1<sup>st</sup> June, and I found myself concluding that Labour was more likely to provide adequately both for health and social care – and more surprisingly that their financial plans were not as daft as the corporate media would have us believe. Nationalising utilities does not increase national debt, in that they become national assets, like a house (or recovering the family silver). Borrowing for investment when interest rates are at an all-time low makes good sense. Raising tax revenues from corporations and the wealthiest 5% in society doesn’t wholly work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> if those firms and individuals decide they don’t want to contribute to the common good and set about avoiding or evading their share. Sir Andrew’s comment about the social care proposals is relevant. 'Mr Dilnot said he was “very disappointed” by the proposals in the manifesto. “Not personally. I feel very disappointed for all of us – the millions of people who are very, very anxious about this,” he added.' </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">I guess that’s what all of us have to decide, captains of industry, the comfortably off, those with no jobs and those who depend on benefits and food banks - and everyone in between. Will we care about the millions or will we care just about ourselves? It’s all too easy to think, “I’m all right, Jack. The rest can go hang.” The issues are really too important to be reduced to schoolyard name-calling and character assassination. </span></span></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-31011356603566580892017-04-06T17:57:00.000+01:002017-04-06T18:06:35.379+01:00The infinite variety of creation<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-flVfSraPtZ0/WOZwMIjw7UI/AAAAAAAAAR8/mrvnX7e6xgETGxy7r0pAaYIPjjzApyC6QCLcB/s1600/scaleImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-flVfSraPtZ0/WOZwMIjw7UI/AAAAAAAAAR8/mrvnX7e6xgETGxy7r0pAaYIPjjzApyC6QCLcB/s320/scaleImage.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Butterfly Conservation</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 120%;">Last weekend we had the fun of having our grandchildren and their parents to stay. When one’s surrounded by news of bereavement and illness it’s easy to be overwhelmed by sadness – and to forget that there’s much to enjoy. For example, just this minute a yellow brimstone butterfly has settled on the mini cauldron of deep mauve violas which have been flowering non-stop since some good friends gave them to Jane last autumn. Now it has bounced away over the garden in the spring sunshine, while a wren sings with its surprising piercing trill on our fence. I wonder whether this year it will complete its nest in the eaves of our neighbour’s garage. I think the males build a number of nests – and last year this one wasn’t used. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-67BhTJQlvcw/WOZyu4umi9I/AAAAAAAAASI/0jz79AkYE1cKAwOiO1Si9mJMSYxCJyqOgCLcB/s1600/obs-book-wren-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-67BhTJQlvcw/WOZyu4umi9I/AAAAAAAAASI/0jz79AkYE1cKAwOiO1Si9mJMSYxCJyqOgCLcB/s320/obs-book-wren-1.jpg" width="206" /></a></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Observer's Book of Birds</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 120%;">And yesterday evening we were at my favourite coffee shop, Cornerstone in Grove, with some good friends. We watched a three-minute video clip, which Tim described as the macro and the micro. </span><span style="line-height: 120%;">It’s called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSNxVqprvM">Cosmic Eye</a></b>. </i>It starts with a girl, Louise, lying on a lawn in Google headquarters in California, and pans out fast through the universe and beyond to the limits of our knowledge and then reverses the process into her eye until it reaches the opposite limits of our knowledge to quarks and beyond, before bringing us back to the human being lying on the grass. Some of us understood it better than others. The big unanswered question, according to Tim, is what’s the unifying theory bringing the cosmic and the quantum together. Being a simple non-scientist, I was left with a sense of awe at the extraordinary diversity of existence. </span></span></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 120%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 120%;">I’m reminded of the most memorable lectures I went to in Cambridge, which were given by Professor Donald MacKinnon, not about my subject, English, but about philosophy. Besides his eccentricity and the gripping intensity of his engagement with the topic, I particularly remember one phrase of his, “the infinite variety of creation” or maybe “of nature”. I remember I thought at the time, “Yes, that’s the excitement of being alive.”</span></span></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-163514158748049548.post-91431617639105330452017-03-28T16:46:00.000+01:002017-04-06T18:03:49.251+01:00Hot air, much wind and cool sense<style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.0pt 842.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} --></style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 140%;">Oh dear, oh dear! I’ve been looking back at the start of this blog. What a boring old fart I’ve become since then. My posts have increased in length and in grumpiness. I’m surprised anyone reads them any more. I know some people do. Probably my family….</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-idgyCn5idkY/WNqDrQMv8MI/AAAAAAAAARk/SG8W6Zu8D005g8tCuLgM5ITVJXMfGitwACLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-idgyCn5idkY/WNqDrQMv8MI/AAAAAAAAARk/SG8W6Zu8D005g8tCuLgM5ITVJXMfGitwACLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 140%;">Anyway, here I am today, sitting in my favourite <a href="http://cornerstonechristiancentre62.vpweb.co.uk/">Cornerstone</a> café admiring the new kitchen in the children's corner, that Sarah the manager raised money for, by going without sugar throughout February. The sun is shining and all’s well with the world.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 140%;">On Saturday we had the local branch MNDA AGM. As usual it was a friendly time. We did the business bit, and after lunch had a talk about the NIHCE Guidelines on MND. Wow, it’s a weighty tome! And I suppose GPs and Health Commissioning groups are meant to have a grip on scores of similar documents…. We also heard about the Happy Valley Festival, a seriously cool one-day music festival in aid of MND on 17<sup>th</sup> June (</span><a href="http://www.happyvalleyfestival.co.uk/"><span style="line-height: 140%;">http://www.happyvalleyfestival.co.uk/</span></a><span style="line-height: 140%;">) - tickets on sale tomorrow. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 140%;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 140%;">I asked one of our local MND experts what I could expect dying to be like. The answer was compassionate and honest: “The hardest part of MND is the living with it, not the dying. As the muscles weaken, the oxygen level drops, carbon dioxide rises. Usually people die in their sleep.” Or words to that effect. Reassuring. Confirmed my view that dying with MND is no more distressing for all involved than any other death.</span></span></span></div>Michael Wenhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756324780596609238noreply@blogger.com3